Henry Wheeler Shaw, better known by his pen name Josh Billings, was born in Lanesborough, Massachusetts in 1818. Billings attended Hamilton College, but was expelled before graduating for removing the clapper from the campus bell. In 1845, Billings married Zipha E. Bradfort. Billings worked various jobs before becoming a journalist and writer in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1848. His informal voice and writings such as Farmers’ Allminax and Everybody’s Friend helped make him the second most popular humorist in late 19th-century America, after Mark Twain. Billings’ lectures were also quite popular. He died in 1885 at age 67.

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